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Old 11-25-2012, 10:09 AM   #1
aem123
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does a router work as a firewall? - what about your modem? - does it act as a firewall? what do most people use as a firewall?
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Old 11-25-2012, 10:57 AM   #2
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For most home use, yes, a router provides the most important functionality of a firewall.
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Old 11-25-2012, 01:26 PM   #3
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What are you trying to accomplish or ascertain about your particular setup?
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Old 11-25-2012, 03:15 PM   #4
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What are you trying to accomplish or ascertain about your particular setup?
I have a router. I just want to make sure that I am protected against hackers by using the router as my only firewall
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Old 11-25-2012, 08:06 PM   #5
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I have a router. I just want to make sure that I am protected against hackers by using the router as my only firewall
Out of the box all consumer routers are configured to act as firewalls.

You can test here:
https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
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Old 11-25-2012, 08:10 PM   #6
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Don't count on your router as your only protection, use a software solution as well such as Comodo.
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Old 11-25-2012, 08:44 PM   #7
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Don't count on your router as your only protection, use a software solution as well such as Comodo.
Depends - for a laptop that gets used on foreign networks, yes. For a home computer, it's not neccessary
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Old 11-25-2012, 09:42 PM   #8
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Depends - for a laptop that gets used on foreign networks, yes. For a home computer, it's not neccessary
This is the very attitude that I've seen time and again result in malware infections.
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Old 11-25-2012, 10:49 PM   #9
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I use the router and I also use the Windows firewall plus MSE. I've had pretty good luck this way. The software firewall should also protect you from attacks from other computers in your home network, from say a laptop.
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Old 11-26-2012, 12:01 AM   #10
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This is the very attitude that I've seen time and again result in malware infections.
I cannot imagine a situation, aside from the one sclitheroe mentioned where you are not on a trusted network, where having a 3rd party firewall installed would provide enough measurable increase in security to justify the time spent in installing and managing that software.

The only situation that it would likely help with, is to reduce additional infection, due to an already installed trojan/downloader. Even then, the default Windows (and I presume OSx, but don't quote me on that) firewall would provide the same firewall functionality, that the user could/would likely just ignore and allow through anyway. Of course, this whole thing is ignoring the fact that you are already infected, so pretty much a moot point.

Of course, if you can't trust every computer on your network, then that's a whole new ballgame, and I certainly might suggest a solution such as Comodo (which is one of the better free firewall solutions).

edit: Just to clarify, I am not referring to the AV/Sandboxing/Backup etc abilities of the Comodo Suite, but simply the firewall portion. If you wanted these other features as well, instead of some other product, then it might make more sense to also use the Firewall functionality as well, I suppose.
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Old 11-26-2012, 11:19 AM   #11
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I really need to upgrade my router, what routers these days have the best firewalls or are they all about the same? I've always had a prefernce for DLink. Also an avid gamer so something with gaming in mind would be great as well as solid wireless coverage.
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Old 11-26-2012, 11:35 AM   #12
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This is the very attitude that I've seen time and again result in malware infections.
It's not attitude at all - it's based on fact. If you have your machine patched, there are few if any active remote code exploits that would affect a home user. The worst one in recent memory would be the remote code exploits against RDP on port 3389, but even those were patched in a timely fashion.

The most prevalent attack vector for malware now is all via the browser, since open ports with remote code exploitability have been steadily decreasing to the point where they are rare, and the ASLR and DEP protection built into recent OS's like Win7 and OS X (to a lesser extent) makes a network based exploit very difficult.

Via the browser however, a compromised browser, Flash plugin, or Adobe Reader (to name three easy targets) is already inside your software firewall, and most firewalls will happily permit outbound connections from any process running on the system. Unless you've got it locked down so tight that you have to manually approve each outbound connection, the firewall buys you nothing in this scenario.
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Old 11-26-2012, 11:54 AM   #13
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I really need to upgrade my router, what routers these days have the best firewalls or are they all about the same? I've always had a prefernce for DLink. Also an avid gamer so something with gaming in mind would be great as well as solid wireless coverage.
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX33846

on sale for %50 off, $69.99
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Old 11-26-2012, 02:59 PM   #14
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Nice, I picked this one up last week for $60 in the clearance bin at London Drugs. Seems pretty good so far.
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Old 11-26-2012, 03:27 PM   #15
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I have been using mine for a while, and bought 2 more a month or 2 ago when they went on sale (for work).

I have been quite happy with then at that price.
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Old 11-28-2012, 01:54 PM   #16
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Originally Posted by sclitheroe View Post
Out of the box all consumer routers are configured to act as firewalls.

You can test here:
https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
thanks for the link, sclitheroe - my computer appears to be fully protected
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